ST PAT'S kicked off their Group 10 premier league title defence with a grinding 22-20 win over a willing Oberon Tigers at the Bathurst Sportsground on Sunday.
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After a bye in round one, the Saints took on a Tigers outfit looking to bounce back from their opening week loss to Mudgee and, for large stretches of Sunday's game, it looked like the visitors might do enough to steal the points.
In the end it was the kicking of Pat's five-eighth Garry Reilly which made the difference, with his three conversions to Oberon's two giving them the edge in the four-tries-apiece affair.
The physical intensity of the match was obvious throughout, though the game was marred as a spectacle by errors and penalties as time wore on.
There was also a major delay during the second half that had plenty of onlookers concerned as Pat's half Joey Coughlan was taken to hospital in an ambulance after picking up a neck injury, however, it appeared to be precautionary at the time.
Saints coach Kurt Hancock will be hoping his team can improve in a number of areas in time for Friday night's local derby with Bathurst Panthers.
"We were sloppy with the ball, our completions and our discipline were terrible at times," Hancock said.
"Defensively we really hung in there, at one stage Oberon were camped near our line for 11 minutes before we finally cracked.
"We were brave, but we definitely need to be smarter."
Oberon almost seemed to catch Pat's by surprise in the early exchanges, dominating territory and possession as Andy Adams crossed to score the opener against his old side.
That sparked Pat's into action as they converted some good field position into a try to Mick Armstrong in the left corner, which started a trend that saw St Pats' most experienced players provide the foundation for their win.
From the next set the lightning quick Adam Morton raced 60 metres to score the second for the blue and whites and it looked like they had found their mojo.
But, to Oberon's credit, they stemmed the tide and approaching half-time they opted to run the ball on the last tackle before some hot potato play with the ball saw Joel Christie-Johnston score the Tigers' second.
At 10-all Pat's got a massive boost just before the break when Nick Miller got through some soft defence to put the home side back in front 16-10 as they went into the sheds.
Soon after the resumption, Oberon again levelled up thanks to a Blake Fitzpatrick try and at 16-all the game was starting to reach a crescendo.
At that point Coughlan reeled out of a seemingly innocuous tackle but was clearly in some discomfort, and things came to a halt for nearly half an hour.
A perfect pass from Reilly to Curtis Boardman again gave Pat's the lead at 22-16 but the Tigers would fight back once more with a try to Brenton Gibson.
Fitzpatrick's conversion was wide though, leaving the visitors chasing a two-point deficit with 12 minutes to play.
They had their chances but each of them was snuffed out by a determined Pat's defence. Even in the final minute it was another Saints veteran in Cameron Neville who extinguished their last attacking raid as he defused a bomb on his line.
"The experienced guys stood up today," Hancock said.
"Mick Armstrong, Garry Reilly and those sorts of guys, and I thought Tim Holman had a good game at fullback before he had to shift into the halves for Joey.
"We're hoping Joey isn't too bad. He was okay but said that he had some tingling down his left side so the best thing to do was to get him to hospital.
"The motivation and determination is clearly still there based on today but we can't afford to keep putting ourselves in that position. It just gasses you."
For the Tigers, Fitzpatrick was always dangerous with the ball while Blake Miller at fullback was equally impressive along with props Luke Christie-Johnston and Wade Judd.
ST PAT'S 22 (Adam Morton, Mick Armstrong, Curtis Boardman, Nick Miller tries; Garry Reilly 3 goals) defeated OBERON TIGERS 20 (Joel Christie-Johnston, Brenton Gibson, Blake Fitzpatrick, Andy Adams tries; Fitzpatrick 2 goals).